Oh shit.
“Evie, as in your Evie, Grim?” Avina gasps.
Grim nods, his shoulders tense, and his stern gaze refuses to lift from Mali. “She began using her powers to perpetuate her own gain. Hurting people, selling her ability to the likes of corrupt nobles like Thrain.” He spits.
“You know nothing of my pain, Grim! I have done what I needed to stay alive. Anything to avoid settling down with a nobody who gambles our life away. Why was it Samson’s men showed up? To rape Evie because of your debts!”
Grim snarls and leaps at her, only for two soldiers to slam him to the ground. The third angles himself to grab Avina, but Sigvid punches him in the face before he can move any further. Grim is soon dueling with his two while Sigvid spars with the other.
Sigvid knees the man between the legs and then twists his neck to the side, snapping it.
Damn, that was easy.
Avina grips an axe in each hand and, with a shriek, sinks both blades into Mali’s chest as she builds an illusion scene. It is unclear if her target was Sigvid or Grim.
Avina snarls, ripping the axes away, spraying scarlet red over herself before slamming the blades back into her flesh. Repeatedly.
Sigvid and Grim’s soldiers lay dead at their feet while Avina proceeds to hack away at Mali until her chest and face are a bloody, unrecognizable mess. Sigvid thought Ives’ fate was an act of a desperate woman. He grins, realizing his little one has more to her darkness.
“Did I get her?” Avina smears blood from her face with her arm. She looks as if she bathed in crimson.
Sigvid chuckles. “Yes, I think you got her.”
“Sorry, Grim.” Avina pats his back. “I imagine you wanted to deal the final blow.”
He shrugs. “Mali was always a bitch, and her actions were sure to claim her one way or the other.”
Sigvid wraps an arm around Avina, and they follow Grim up the steps and emerge onto the empty street.
“Where the fuck is everyone?” Sigvid blinks against the first light he has seen in nearly three weeks.
“Lying in wait.” Grim drags him toward the gate when an arrow lands at their feet.
Surrounding the trio are no less than twenty archers along the city wall and an equal number of swords on the ground. All fighters direct their weapons at them.
“Daughter!”
Avina whips around as King Ceowald shoves through the warriors.
“You are alive.” His arms spread at his sides as he strolls toward her, his long emerald-green velvet cloak billowing in the morning breeze.
She fists at her side, and he swears her hand twitches over her axe shaft. “Do not play games with me, Father. When the Timber Army arrived, you knew whose hand penned the letter to activate them.”
Ceowald stops his pursuit toward Avina to sigh visibly. “Have you lost your senses, child? After that silly war, what possessed you to act as his sponsor in the Arena?” He gestures toward Sigvid. “To stand at his side after he captured you? Had his way with you?”
Sigvid’s shoulders roll back, and he prepares to sink his fist through this man’s face. No matter how often Ceowald questioned him in his dungeon cell, he refused to share anything about Avina.
She steels herself against Ceowald with a soured sneer. “He is my Beast, Father! Every action I have taken is of my accord! I chose to embrace the man I love.”
My Beast…
Ceowald chuckles mockingly. “You have always been lost in your mind, girl. Think of your duty, your people, for even a moment.”
“Duty? When is the last time you thought of someone other than yourself? Was it when you broke the marriage accord with King Thord and threw him off the high garden? Was it when you sought advice from Thrain when you should have respected my wishes as Queen of Timber?”
She closes the distance with her father. “You accepted Thrain’swords without validating anyone else’s. You have betrayed me, your daughter, and the good my union with Sigvid should have been years ago. You subjected me to abuse at the hands of an unhinged man and then set me up for failure again. I want nothing to do with you.”
“How dare you! I gave you everything-”
